Oh yeah….she’s now 7.1 kg, 64 cm long and has a head circumference of 43 cm. If you care.
Archive for October, 2012
Okay, after this post I am going to only update once a month. Not only am I struggling to find the time, but in reality she’s not going to change that much week to week anymore. If you want regular updates, check me out on twitter (melkoetsveld). Otherwise, once a month it is for you!
So…six months! The days have been very, very long, but the months have gone quickly. I can’t believe it’s been half a year already! Still, looking forward to getting my sleep back.
So she’s definitely sitting unsupported now which makes life much easier. I think it’s also time to say goodbye to the bouncer….we usually put her in it when we shower so we can keep an eye on her and have her entertained, but she’s been straining to get out of it the past few times…until a couple of days ago when she was reaching for a tag on a towel on the floor and ended up stuck hanging upside down from the bouncer – she can’t fall out because she’s strapped in, but I’m surprised it didn’t tip over! She obviously got very distressed hanging there so I had to cut my shower short. Poor little girl. And yes. I laughed a LOT.
She’s caterbaby-ing with oomph now (as you saw in the last week’s video). Still no crawling, but she’ll get there eventually. She gets up very easily on her hands and knees and rocks a bit. She also often has one leg tucked underneath her (on her knee) and the other leg splayed out straight, which isn’t really conducive to any movement.
We’ve also rearranged the house and I think it’s heaps better – the computer and desk are out in the lounge now, and we have foam mats down for Ava to play on. The other couch is in Ava’s room so that I can breastfeed there in the night.
We have *attempted* to shift her into her room, but at the moment with all the night wakings we are giving up half way through the night. But, she goes down fairly easily and stays there for a few hours, which is better than none at all.
I’m looking forward to seeing the paediatric gastroenterologist on Monday – hopefully he’ll have some advice or at least some idea of what’s going on. We also went to a sleep seminar by Pinky McKay and learnt that apparently sleeping them on their left side can help with reflux. So…we’re going to have to get her out of her swaddle bag to do that, but hopefully that might help. Not sure how she’ll stay on her side though – might use a rolled up towel or two to encourage it. All I want is some damn sleep! She’s averaging about 7 wakings a night at the moment, which is technically better than 15. At least she’s not really in pain anymore, the losec seems to have helped that. But the poor love is still refluxing which is waking her up.
In other news, my health has also taken a toll. In addition to severe sleep deprivation and dangerously low iron levels, I have developed hypothyroidism. In a nutshell, my thyroid isn’t working which leaves me fatigued and amongst other things, has caused me to gain weight. That’s why I suspected it – rather than losing weight gradually whilst breastfeeding (which I appreciate that not everybody does), I have been gaining weight gradually and am now only a few kilos lighter than before I gave birth. Sad face. I’m on medication, but it’s probably going to be a few months before things have righted themselves. Ugh.
The most exciting thing this month is that we have successfully started solids! We tried sweet potato first (though in hindsight had I realised how much more watery pumpkin was I would have started with that) because a few of the babies in my mother’s group had a bad reaction to the rice cereal, and given her digestive problems, I didn’t want to risk it. The first day she was curious, but not overly engaged with the whole process. She definitely ate some, but was more interested in chewing on the spoon. I smeared some of it on her Bumbo tray to let her play with it, and predictably it got everywhere. But it wasn’t a failure.
The next day I tried again, and the video I posted last week shows how successful it was! She was so eager to eat it – she obviously decided overnight that it was a good thing. She does have the annoying habit of wanting to feed herself all the time, which makes life difficult, but by using two spoons we can work around it. I much prefer when she has ‘lazier’ days and is content for me to spoon it into her mouth. It’s much quicker and less messy when that happens.
So far we’ve tried orange vegies – sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot. I’m going to introduce apple on Monday and then pear a couple of days later, and then we might do some other vegies. It’s pretty exciting, well, for me at least anyway.
And in completely unrelated news…I just discovered that Offbeat Mama has run my maternity photos….you’ve probably already seen them, but I am feeling pretty thrilled. Yay!
Razzing fun times:
I’ve got more photos/video for this week than next, so I’ll save the text updating for the 6 month post (following very closely, I promise!). One day I might even write something that doesn’t revolve around Ava. But really, that’s not why you come here, is it?
Video 1: Not quite crawling:
Video 2: Dada IS silly:
Video 3: I like feeding myself! (Warning – long):
Yep, little miss is sitting all on her own now. Only a little wobbly, and we still need to be close by, but generally speaking when she gets tired she slumps forward and ends up on her tummy, rather than falling to her side. This is making getting changed a lot easier – I can pull her up to sitting position and put a cardigan a bib on. Hurrah!!
She also has uttered her first ‘phrase’ in a fashion that made us laugh. I asked her a question and she responded with ‘Oh yeah’. It made both me and Andrew laugh quite loudly. Since then she’s been trying out ‘y’ sounds a little bit.
She is also starting to get on the move – I put her on her tummy last week, walked away and came back to find her on the other side of the rug. It was my first ‘That’s not where I left you!’ moment. Since then she has scooted her way across the lounge, though not always in the direction she wants to. If her legs hit the floorboards, she ends up moving backwards, though she only gets frustrated sometimes when she *really* wants a toy. It’s pretty fun now to place a toy about 50 cm out of reach and watch her caterpillar her way across to it. We call her caterbaby (thanks RyRy). It’s pretty funny to watch – she lunges forward and then rests her head on the ground, then lunges forward and rests and repeat until it’s almost in her reach, then she reaches out whilst resting her head, lunges forward and rests/reaches…until it’s in her grasp and she drags it toward herself, squealing with delight that she has the toy. Just recently her favourite toys to mouth are her bath ducks. She *loves* them. Yep, she’s pretty fickle with toys. Who knows what she’ll like next week?
Photos:
Sitting around:
Bonus nudie kisses and giggles (yes, it’s similar to a previous video, but I think she’s cute, dammit!):
Little munchkin is nearly sitting all on her own now…maybe another week or two and she’ll have it mastered. She can do it for about a minute or two now, in a wobbly kind of fashion. Still pretty exciting. And hey….almost on time!
Lots of photos this week….I couldn’t narrow them down. I know you’re disappointed.
And two videos coz you’re lucky.
I’m a kitty kat:
Loves the naked:
Peace out!
XX
Dancing to my own rhythm 